3-Perf

Top Hat is the story of Graham, a timid Saturday boy who works at a dry cleaners. His boss (Don) runs a tight ship and constantly berates Graham for his incompetence at the job. When 'The Gentleman' enters the shop, and asks for his top hat to be dry-cleaned, Graham happily agrees. When Graham accidentally shrinks the top hat, he believes he is in serious trouble. What follows is beyond even Graham's wildest imagination.

This project represents my second collaboration with Director Michael Middleton-Downer, and my first with Producer Sian Tomlinson. After reading Samuel Hutchinson's wonderfully warm and quirky screenplay, I phoned up Mike and committed straight away. Good writing is the basis of all great cinematic works, and it's important to not let such gems slip through the net.

The last time director Lee Daniels and cinematographer Andrew Dunn, BSC teamed up was on the film Precious, which earned six ACADEMY AWARD® nominations, including one for best picture. “That film was special, and it meant a lot to people,” recalls Dunn. “It changed some lives.”

The duo’s latest collaboration is the extraordinary story of Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents as the head butler of the White House from 1952 to 1986. The film begins in the cotton fields of Gaines’ youth and reaches a climax when Gaines returns to the White House at age 92 to meet an African-American president. Forest Whitaker plays the title role.

At the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur made a difficult decision to spare the life of Japanese Emperor Hirohito. That is the historical setting of Emperor, a new feature film directed by Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and photographed by Stuart Dryburgh, NCZS, ASC (The Piano, Aeon Flux, Amelia).

Of equal importance in the film is the smaller, human story of General Bonner Fellers, the man MacArthur assigns to investigate the matter, and Fellers’ relationship with Aya Shimada, a Japanese woman he met years earlier. Fellers eventually risks his career in his search for Aya. Matthew Fox plays Fellers, and Eriko Hatsune is Aya. Tommy Lee Jones is entertainingly gruff as MacArthur.

THE HEAT fires up the box office this weekend, with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy starring in this buddy cop comedy, directed by Paul Feig and shot by Robert Yeoman, ASC on Kodak 35mm 3-perf film. We can only imagine that the shenanigans and antics that play out on screen also pervaded on set. Here are a few behind-the-scenes photos from the production and a clip to tease your funny bone:

When Sylvain Chomet, the wildly inventive director of the animated feature films The Illusionist and The Triplets of Belleville, set out to direct his first live-action feature, Attila Marcel, he chose to work with acclaimed cinematographer Antoine Roch, AFC. Roch, a veteran of more than 30 feature films, was introduced to Chomet by producer Claudie Ossard. Director and cinematographer were immediately simpatico. “I was drawn to Attila Marcel by Sylvain,” the DP relates. “He is so creative, and has such a feeling for odd, wonderful characters – the too big, the too small. He has a very strong ‘secret garden.’”

And then there was the script. “It was beautiful,” Roch adds. “It was all about the power of memory to transform. Right from the start I saw ways in which I could help Sylvain achieve the power of these memories in Paul’s (the main character’s) life.”